


moment to live

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 16:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4927417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the days leading up to the first incursion of the Second Homeworld Invasion, Pearl and Garnet take some time to destress.</p><p>Takes place between “Political Power” and “The Return.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	moment to live

**Author's Note:**

  * For [uumiho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/uumiho/gifts).



> happy birthday, my love.

The stress is tangible by this point. Garnet would swear that she could see it with her third eye if she squinted hard enough.

Steven is sleeping over with his dad tonight, and the Crystal Gems had planned to take this time to prepare for the inevitable arrival of Homeworld. Garnet and Amethyst had dragged out Rose’s cannons, and they’d tried to plug whatever magic they could into them and enhance the shot. There had been weapon maintenance too; sharper thorns on a more tensile whip, gauntlets with better shock absorption, that solidified on impact and not otherwise, a stronger, lighter spear. Garnet had peered into the future, trying to predict what she could.

And now they were sitting around a Wailing Stone, bodies stiffer than during the first war, in complete silence.

Garnet hates it.

It doesn’t help that she can see the inevitable split. No matter where she looks, no matter how she steers, Ruby and Sapphire are going to be separated. She — Garnet — will cease to be.

The pair are terrified. They find solace in each other — she herself is stable, for now, and of course the grip is all that much tighter for the impending dissolution — but in the backs of their own gems, Ruby doesn’t know how she’s going to handle her own emotions and Sapphire’s looks into the future are all turning up blanks. She can only provide so much stability.

Amethyst abruptly breaks the silence, snapping Garnet out of her introspection as she and Pearl both snap to the other gem. 

“Sooo,” she drawls. “This is super lame, and I’m bored.” She taps a fist twice against her chest, just under her gem, and makes a peace sign, already walking backwards to the warp. “See you later. Puma out.”

“ _Amethyst!_ ” Pearl’s voice shakes with — something. Garnet can’t quite tell what, which doesn’t really help her sense of security. “ _Where_ are you going? Don’t you realize we have to—”

“Chill, P.” Amethyst stretches her hands behind her back. “I’m gonna go hang out with a couple human friends I made. They hang out in this really rad dumpster full of the best garbage.” Her grin fades. “Gonna, y’know. Get that last meal in.”

“It’s not gonna be our last meal,” Garnet says. “Pearl already had hers forever ago.” She ignores Pearl’s sputter.

Amethyst snorts, a hint of a smile returning to her face. “Good one, G.” She looks up. “Seriously, though, the lameness quotient in this room is off the charts. See you later.”

Pearl barely twitches after her, instead groaning as she falls back into the couch. “She’s right,” she says sadly. “We don’t actually have to do anything, except wait.” Her head rolls back. “I wish I could be distracted by garbage.”

“You wouldn’t be you if you were,” Garnet says almost reflexively. “We need Pearl and Amethyst and Garnet, not Amethyst and Amethyst and Garnet. _Steven_ needs that.”

Pearl’s body seems to sag further into the couch somehow. Garnet suspects there might be some rearrangement of mass involved there, but she can’t be sure. “Steven might not have us for much longer anyway.”

“Hey,” Garnet says. “We’ll make it. We’re the Crystal Gems.” She keeps her voice steady and her delivery solid. She has never been oblivious to the fact that the other Gems rely on her to fill the gap in command left by Rose; she has always been tough and strong and self-confident, and she knows perfectly well she’s done a good job leading the team in Rose’s absence. But leadership means some degree of subordinating one’s fears for the sake of the team, fears which do not vanish simply because she can talk them out among two people instead of one. “We’ve done this before, and there’s no way they’re sending the same force they did last time. We can handle it.”

Pearl smiles weakly. “We’ll always save the day?”

“And if you think we can’t,” Garnet affirms, “we’ll always find a way.”

Pearl joins her as they sing the last two lines, high voice harmonizing with Garnet’s lower tones. They fill in for Amethyst and Steven, ending lightly with a spoken “And Steven.”

Another silence stretches before them, more comfortable this time, absorbing the last ringing notes of the song and settling closely around Garnet’s spread shoulders. Pearl looks, if not happier, more resilient than before.

Abruptly, Pearl speaks up. “How do you do it? How do you stay so—so strong? You’re always at the top of your game, Garnet—how do I…?” She trails off, but Garnet gets the gist of her question, and the fragile expression of not-quite-hope on her face.

“I know my own strength. I take that toughness, that power, and I keep it in my mind, and I remind myself of it whenever I struggle. You’re strong too, Pearl. Whenever you worry, you remember that you are a Crystal Gem and nothing can stop you.”

Pearl...does not seem convinced at first, but she nods, and a third silence stretches into the beyond.

Garnet give it precisely eight seconds before she resumes speaking. 

“It feels like lying, at first.”

Pearl looks up. Garnet avoids looking back, staring instead out the window. “Sapphire...didn’t always believe it, even after we fused. Ruby thought that as long as we were together we could take anything, but Sapphire…” She breaks off. “It felt like lying. It took practice. We had to remind ourselves of all the times we’d won, how long we’d managed to stay together. It’ll take practice for you, too.”

Pearl’s nod is genuine, this time, her expression determined. “I’ll try, Garnet.”

Garnet looks back, meeting her gaze. She could say “good” and nod and move on, but…

No. She makes her decision. “I could show you.” 

Pearl’s mouth opens, and Garnet clarify hastily. “Not Sardonyx,” she says. “Just us, less physical than now.”

Pearl’s mouth closes, but the eagerness is still there on her face, and she nods firmly. “Yes. Please.”

Garnet stands, vanishing her glasses, and takes the other gem’s hands in hers, staring into her eyes and gem with her own. Pearl’s eyes close with her own as Garnet leans in and presses her mouth to hers, both forms subsuming themselves into light and magic—

She is still Garnet, not Sardonyx. Sardonyx is an idea, now, a what-could-be if she and Pearl were to deepen the bond. Instead, she is Garnet-with-Pearl, and Pearl-with-Garnet, camaraderie and soul and love reaching across pathways of light from Garnet’s gems to hers. Garnet relaxes into the bond, and marshall her love for herself, her absolute confidence in her power, backed by years of experience and myriad victories, and she sends it across the paths.

Pearl’s gem sags into hers almost metaphysically, stress draining away as she feels Garnet’s strength. Cautiously, Garnet tug at a Sardonyx memory, reminding Pearl how strong she can be, and again at one of Opal. Another, of Alexandrite, their collective love for Steven and for Earth, and another of Pearl’s fight with Sugilite, defeating a gem twelve times her own size. 

_13.556_ , comes Pearl’s hazy correction across the light, and Garnet chuckles as she relaxes into the light. Her own stress has lessened, too, feeling Pearl’s genuine awe at her power, her memory of Opal’s joy because Pearl and Amethyst can feel the power that Garnet feels. She is strong, and she knows it, but she knows Pearl and Amethyst are strong too, and so is Steven, in his own way.

Sapphire still cannot see the future past the split.

Somehow Garnet is confident regardless.


End file.
